The Milwaukee Bucks' John Henson recently attempted to visit Schwanke-Kasten Jewelers in Whitefish Bay, Wis., but unfortunately, his efforts were thwarted by employees who locked the door and called the police on him.
Before Henson could enter the jewelry store, employees locked the doors and called police, he said. After the police arrived, Henson was questioned about why he was there, and authorities ran his license plates.
Henson made an Instagram post about his racial-profiling experience, and it caught the attention of Schwanke-Kasten President Tom Dixon, who offered Henson an apology.
"He was sincere in his apology," Henson said Tuesday after meeting with Dixon. "He knew that shouldn't have happened. He's had some prior incidents, but it still doesn't make it right for them to do what they did. It's a real issue, but right now I want to focus on the game tonight [vs. Minnesota], and there will be time to talk about it later. I am going to do some things to raise awareness of situations like that and go from there."
Henson went on to state that he'd never been in an incident like that before and called it "surreal."
"To be hit with it head-on, it was a tough situation," he said. "A surreal moment. It's one of those things that happened, and I felt that I needed to speak on it. I never want anybody else to go through that. It's not a good feeling."
Jason Kidd, the Bucks' coach, said he was proud of Henson for handling the situation the way he did.
"It's a great life lesson for everyone," Kidd said. "For our young team, for our city, for our state; it's something for us to learn from. Everybody makes mistakes; nobody is perfect. For the owner to come and apologize to John, personally, was a step in the right direction. It's an issue worldwide, not just here in Milwaukee. We have to do a better of job of addressing it and also learning from it. Our guys here have learned a life lesson at a very young age."
As of last Friday, the jewelry store had been dealing with "suspicious" phone calls, as well as past robberies. Although store employees eventually allowed Henson to come into the store, they asked police to stay as well; the police declined once they figured out who Henson was.
Dixon released a statement after his meeting with Henson. "I appreciated the opportunity to personally meet with John Henson this morning to look him in the eye, shake hands and apologize," Dixon said. "No one should ever have to experience what he experienced. We believe that everyone—professional athlete or not—deserves to be treated with dignity and respect."